AMD and Nvidia release new professional video cards for laptops
AMD has announced new FirePro cards for mobile workstations and almost simultaneously Nvidia is introducing new Quadro cards for professional laptops. At AMD it concerns three cards, while Nvidia releases six new Quadros.
The most powerful professional mobile video card from AMD is the FirePro W7170M, which is built around the Tonga GPU and combines 2048 stream processors with a core clock speed of 723MHz. The chip communicates via a 256-bit wide bus with 4GB of memory. Among other things, the Dell Precision 7710 announced on Thursday will contain the video card, AMD reports.
| GPU model | Tonga | Bonaire | Bonaire |
| Stream Processors | 2048 | 640 | 512 |
| GPU clock speed | 723MHz | up to 925MHz | up to 925MHz |
| Memory size | 4096MB gddr5 | 2048MB gddr5 | 2048MB gddr5 |
| Memory Speed | 2500MHz | 2250MHz | 2000MHz |
| Memory interface | 256bit | 128bit | 128bit |
| Memory bandwidth | 160GB/s | 72GB/s | 60GB/s |
Nvidia releases six Quadro cards for mobile workstations. Three of them are based on the GM204 GPU and three on the GM107. Nvidia has activated 1536 stream processors with the most powerful Quadro, the M5000M, just like with the GTX 980M. Recently, Nvidia announced that it would also release the GM204 with the full 2048 cores active for laptops. The Quadro M5000M is combined with 8GB of memory. Dell, HP and Lenovo will buy the chips, Nvidia claims.
| GPU model | GM204 | GM204 | GM204 | GM107 | GM107 | GM107 |
| Stream Processors | 1536 | 1280 | 1024 | 640 | 512 | 384 |
| Memory size | 8192MB gddr5 | 4096MB gddr5 | 4096MB gddr5 | 4096MB gddr5 | 2048MB gddr5 | 2048MB gddr5 |
| Memory interface | 256bit | 256bit | 256bit | 128bit | 128bit | 128bit |
| Memory Speed | 160GB/s | 160GB/s | 160GB/s | 80GB/s | 80GB/s | 80GB/s |
| Consumption | 100 Watt | 100 Watt | 75 Watt | 55 Watt | 40 Watt | 30 Watt |
Professional mobile video cards from AMD and Nvidia are based on the same GPUs as the versions found in consumer laptops, only they offer more certainty with regard to the drivers because the manufacturers test and certify them more extensively.